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Article: Finding a new definition of photosynthesis. (new approach to photosynthesis discovered)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- July 20, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Plants may take more than one approach to photosynthesis, the age-old process that produces the world's oxygen, a new study suggests. A newly discovered alternative may resemble the system that photosynthetic organisms used billions of years ago when Earth's atmosphere lacked oxygen.
Photosynthetic plants use the energy of light to make carbohydrates, their energy storage molecules, from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Botanists have long held that every plant requires two separate systems, working together in the leaf membrane, to carry out photosynthesis. Each system is made up of proteins with embedded pigments. Photosystem I (PSI) is essential to the plant's ...